Black and White Hats
by Empty Pen09
Summary: Caroline Forbes and Elena Gilbert, life long friends, finally address the giant elephant in the room of their friendship. One Stefan Salvatore.


**A/N: Just something I wrote a few months ago that I forgot I had lying around. Try and see the fight from both points of view. Is Caroline over reacting? Is Elena a bit heartless? Are they both sort of right? A little bit wrong? **

"I know what she did to you. I know how much she hurt you, how badly she broke your heart. But you have to know I'd never do anything like that. I'd never do anything to hurt you. Ever. I'm not her. I'll never be her." Elena watched in silence as Caroline ran her thin fingers through Stefan's hair.

"But she's your best friend," Stefan said softly.

Caroline shook her head. "YOU'RE my best friend. And she's the woman who hurt you. I am not her. Trust me. Please trust me. I'm a safe place. You're safe with me. Always."

He nodded. "I do. I trust you. More than anybody."

"Let's go to sleep. Then tomorrow we'll do it. We'll get in your car and we'll just do it."

Stefan chuckled. "Just like that?"

Caroline smiled with a confident nod. "Just like that."

Elena watched the two of them lie down in bed and cuddle close and something inside her cringed. It had been forever since she'd left Stefan behind and chose Damon. The choice had fractured her relationship with Stefan but as usual Caroline had been there to pick up the pieces. Now she was lying around in bed with him bashing her.

Caroline had always been a friend but by the sounds of things that may have changed. Stefan had every reason not to trust her but she didn't need Caroline there stoking the flames. She'd apologized to him a hundred times and he'd forgiven her every time. But here they were again, back to square one. Only this time Caroline was making things worse. She'd have to get him alone for a minute and talk to him. Now that Damon was back she didn't need the three of them taking a huge step backwards. She moved quietly away from the bedroom and head back up to bed. This wasn't going to be a problem, not again.

* * *

For someone who'd been trapped in purgatory for months Bonnie Bennett didn't look any worse for wear. Elena found her sitting at the Salvatore table flipping through a months old issue of a Celebrity tabloid. Damon had given her a stack of the things the moment they walked through the door and Bonnie had smiled and nodded wordlessly. While they were away they'd seemingly developed their own shorthand. They still fought like cats and dogs but all the hostility was gone. Bonnie had made herself comfortable in the Salvatore mansion and after a few polite hellos she locked herself in a bedroom for the night.

"Morning Bonnie," Elena said as she wrapped her arms around her friend. Bonnie didn't flinch away from the hug and laughed playfully in response.

"Elena, how many times are you going to hug me hello?"

"A million. Enough until I'm confident you're both real and aren't going anyplace." She released Bonnie and slipped into the kitchen for a cup of coffee.

"Did Damon talk to you about our time away?"

Their time away? Elena wanted to laugh. They'd both been dead for months. Their friends had mourned them, accepted their deaths and said their goodbyes. Now suddenly they were back but Bonnie was acting as if they'd just taken a long weekend in Las Vegas.

"Not yet. But you know Damon. He's not on anybody's schedule."

Bonnie turned her attention back to her magazine. "Don't let him pretend like it was nothing. Pressure him to talk to you. He needs to talk about it to somebody besides me." She shrugged. "And something tells me that Stefan won't be stepping up this time."

Elena almost groaned. "Can you believe he's mad at me? Again. And not only that but last night I heard him and Caroline talking about it. I'm pretty sure she wasn't saying nice things about me."

Bonnie looked at her but didn't speak, instead of saying something she looked back down at her magazine.

"I have to talk to him, she's filling his head with all this nonsense."

"Who's filling whose head with nonsense?" The question cut through the room like a hot knife through butter. Despite her superior vampire hearing Elena hadn't heard Caroline sneak up on them. She sighed before rolling her eyes and looking over her shoulder.

"Morning Caroline."

"Elena," Caroline said without emotion. Bonnie looked in Caroline's direction, met her gaze, and then turned away.

"Is Stefan awake? I want to speak to him."

Caroline ran a glass under the faucet, rinsed it thoroughly, filled it with water and took a long gulp. "He's packing. We don't have time for idle chat."

Packing? "Where is he going?"

Caroline shrugged. "I couldn't say. We'll figure it out on the way. The only plans we've made involve getting the hell away from Mystic Falls."

"You're just going to pack up and leave? You weren't even going to say goodbye?"

Caroline shrugged. "We've said our goodbyes."

"We. We. We. We," Elena said with anger. "Just because you're sleeping with a guy that doesn't make you a we."

From her spot at the table Bonnie groaned. "Guys come on."

Elena and Caroline both ignored her.

"Not that it's any of your business but we aren't sleeping together. Well we're sleeping together but we aren't having sex. And when or if we do decide to have sex I won't be feeling the need to clear it with you Elena."

"What is your problem with me Caroline? I don't know what I ever did to you to make you so angry with me."

"I don't have a problem with you Elena. You haven't done anything to me. Stefan and I are just leaving. Bonnie is safe, Matt's in a good place. You're a vampire, you'll be here when we get back."

"I overheard you two talking last night. I heard what you told him," Elena said fighting back annoyance.

"Eavesdrop much," Caroline said under her breath?

Bonnie shifted uncomfortably in her seat. "Guys maybe we shouldn't talk about this. Elena if they need to skip town let them skip town. They'll be back when they're ready."

"No, running off isn't the right thing to do. What if something happens?"

Caroline shook her head. "Something will always happen. It's Mystic Falls. Stefan needs to get out of here. This situation isn't good for him. He still hasn't dealt with losing you. You have Damon and if you insist on trying to make that work you don't need your ex-boyfriend sleeping down the hall anyway. And HE doesn't need to see you guys all over one another. Did it ever occur to you that he's heartbroken?"

Elena fought back the urge to scream. "God, give it a rest already Caroline. I get it, you're friends, but since when do you turn your back on me? I heard what you said last night. He's your best friend."

"He is. He's always been there for me. Every single time I've needed him, even when he's had no reason to be. I've done my best to return that favor." She looked at Elena with something that could possibly pass as sympathy. "I care about you Elena, but he deserved better. He's a good man."

"You don't think I know that? You don't think I feel terrible? What was I supposed to do?" Elena couldn't understand why Caroline didn't GET it. She didn't set out to break Stefan's heart.

"I don't know, you could have not slept with his brother the day after you broke up with him, that would have been a start. Or how about not sleeping with his brother at all. I mean I get it, you had the hots for Damon but the proper thing to do would have been to give them BOTH up. For Christ's sake they're brothers Elena. You don't trade one brother for another. That's common sense."

Elena only shook her head. "You guys just don't understand. It was out of my control. It was this thing that was bigger than me."

"Bull. You and Stefan are linked by the Doppelganger curse. You're destined to be together. Destined Elena. If anything THAT'S bigger than you. You wanting to sleep with Damon is about your hormones. You're hot for him. It's not some big mystery. It's the same thing every girl your age has gone through. You want the cute bad boy because he gets your motor running. Pretending its some epic love story is just you deluding yourself. I'm sure Damon has many wonderful qualities. I mean he's done some good things, but he's done bad too. Lots and lots of bad. He snapped your brother's neck without batting an eye for one, used ME as a plaything, threatened to kill everybody you know at least once. And that's just off the top of my head. If you choose to ignore those things, fine. It's your life, but don't expect me to sit here and pretend like I feel like you made the right choice."

Elena crossed her arms. "You once told me that you weren't going to pick sides."

"I've never kept it a secret that I'm team Stefan. I will always be team Stefan."

"I know, but that doesn't mean you should side against me. We've known each other since we were toddlers Caroline. Doesn't that count for something?"

Caroline nodded. "It does. It's why I'm still your friend. We have history. But truth be told, if I had to choose between you or Stefan, I'm not sure you'd win. What you did to him, shows a level of selfishness and personal callousness that I just don't understand. If the two of you did to ME what you did to him, I'd never speak to either of you ever again."

"You're crazy. Bonnie tell her she's crazy."

Bonnie looked sheepishly up from her magazine and offered a half shrug. "Stefan and I aren't as close as Caroline and him."

Elena's heart leapt to her throat. "That's a carefully worded answer."

Caroline nodded smugly. "Bonnie's too nice to say what EVERYBODY thinks. What you did was wrong. Trading one brother for another is wrong. It doesn't matter what the details are. And anybody who knows Damon will never understand why you did it."

Elena looked back towards Bonnie who only shrugged. "Damon isn't all bad, but I don't understand it either. Stefan would have walked through fire for you. How this all happened was hurtful. It had to be. Caroline held him together. When you and Damon were having your dream summer the guy was being tortured. Caroline was the only one who even considered something was wrong. If she says he needs to leave, he probably does. She would know."

Elena sighed. "How many times do I have to say I'm sorry?"

"It's not about saying you're sorry Elena. You don't seem to understand what this did to him."

Bonnie shook her head. "You were kind of the love of his life Elena. He worshipped you from the moment he first saw you."

"I know all that."

"And he wasn't the love of YOUR life. I get that. He gets that. But he did everything right. Or at least he tried to. And to lose to a guy who did everything wrong, sucks. It sucked having to watch that happen to him. Do you ever think he'll trust another woman again? I'd do anything for him and I don't think he'd even open his heart up to ME. That's how bad this was. Damon is the one person he thought he wouldn't have to worry about losing you to, but." She sighed. "But he did. You were the two people in his life he trusted more than anybody and you did this horrible thing to him. The fact that he's trying to be big about it, and wants to see you both happy just makes him that much more loveable. When the truth is nobody would think any less of him if he stuck a stake through both your hearts."

"Ouch," Elena said defensively. "It wasn't about HIM. Not really."

"Elena," Bonnie said quickly.

"No, she's making it sound like I'm a horrible person. I didn't do this to hurt him."

"But he still got hurt," Caroline said quickly. "And you're not the hero of this story Elena. Spin it any way you want but in this story you're the villain. If someone told you this story a year ago you'd be appalled. If you were told this story about someone else you'd think badly of them."

"Caroline that's enough," Bonnie finally said. "You're piling on."

Caroline shook her head, her blonde hair flowing freely in the air. "I'm sorry but I didn't bring it up. She wanted to know. She has to let him go. Let him leave. Be happy with Damon if she thinks she can. But Stefan needs to get away from them both."

"All of a sudden you're an expert on Stefan Salvatore? I dated him for years. Me. I think I understand him a little better than you do. He's forgiven me a hundred times. Why can't you?"

"The better question is why did you feel the need to apologize a hundred times in the first place?"

"You're just going to lord this over me for the rest of eternity aren't you?" Elena knew Caroline Forbes was persistent if anything, she'd never let this go. Ever.

"No. You'll do that yourself one day. Because one day, being with the bad boy is going to stop being exciting. You're going to see that even despite your best efforts Damon is going to be Damon. He's going to do Damon things. Like kill people you like, get drunk and misbehave, use and lie and cheat and steal. And YOU won't be in any position to complain because he's never pretended to be anything else. Not once. And you're going to figure out that you chose the wrong brother." She shook her head and laid her empty glass in the sink. "And I will light Stefan on fire before I let him go back to you. I love you Elena but you're not the hero of this story. You're the villain. Damon once said you had more in common with Katherine than you knew and you told me he was crazy, but he was right. Because this is exactly what SHE did to them. But instead of Damon she chose Stefan and you know what HE did? He broke things off, because it was the right thing to do. He didn't trust her, or anything she said because someone who'd play two brothers against each other can't be trusted. He chose not to hurt Damon because he knew Damon loved her. And his reward for doing the right thing? You put them in the same situation, chose the other brother and he gets his heart broken."

"That's not fair, I'm nothing like Katherine."

"Everything Stefan loves he loses because of Damon." Caroline looked at her, again almost with something that looked like sympathy. "He loved Katherine, but because of Damon he gave her up. Lexie, his best friend in the world, Damon staked her without blinking an eye. And you, the love of his life, Damon stole you away."

"Caroline that's enough," Bonnie said sternly. "She's heard enough."

"One day, years from now, Damon is going to track Stefan down again. He's going to pretend to be a better guy. Stefan will let him in despite knowing better because they're brothers. But like always everything good in Stefan's life will disappear. The friends he's made, the woman he loves. All of it will disappear. God knows what he'll do to me if I'm still around. Of course he'll have his reasons. He always has his reasons, but at the end of the day it's just more of the same. Until then Stefan needs to get away from you and Damon both. You're not good for him, neither of you. He needs some peace. He needs somebody to look after him, and cuddle with him, and watch old movies with him. He doesn't need to see his brother fall in love with the woman of his dreams. That's cruel."

"Caroline, that's enough," Bonnie repeated. "She gets it. If you guys need to hit the road we understand."

Elena shrugged. "Whatever. Leave if you want to leave."

Caroline looked at them both with her usual know it all smirk. "Thank you for giving us your blessing," she said almost snidely. Across the room Bonnie sighed. Elena didn't speak when Caroline made her escape.

"She's sort of being a bitch this morning," Elena finally said.

Bonnie shrugged. "They're good friends. She never hid the fact that she's team Stefan. She'll come around. The more hurt he is the angrier she'll be, you know Caroline. She'll calm down and come back and everything will be back to normal. You just have to wait her out. You're a vampire. You're not going anyplace right."

Elena shrugged just in time for Damon to come into the room sans shirt. "What crawled up Blondie's ass this morning?" He asked with barely a glance over his shoulder.

"Nothing. She and Stefan are taking a long weekend now that you and Bonnie are safe. You should go say goodbye, give him a hug or something. Arm wrestle. Whatever brothers do."

Damon scoffed. "Why? He's just leaving for the weekend he's not going to the Moon."

Elena gave him a playful scowl. "Just go do it Damon. He's been in the dumps for a while, it'll be a nice thing to do for your brother. He loves you."

Damon rolled his eyes. "Fine, I'll do it. Seems sort of pointless though."

"Just do it and we'll crawl back in bed and you can tell me all about purgatory."

Damon snickered. "Piece of cake. Bonnie and I had it handled the whole time."

Bonnie nodded. "Sure did."

"Well tell me about it anyway," Elena said before sipping her coffee. "We got plenty of time."


End file.
